Scrum Updated SMC Exam Questions and Answers by liberty

The technically relevant principle is that business justification must be reassessed whenever major issues or risks threaten viability, making D the intended answer. SBOK states that business justification is initially assessed before project initiation and continuously verified throughout the lifecycle. Verification occurs at predefined intervals or milestones and also whenever significant issues or risks arise that could undermine the rationale for continuing the investment.

Option C overstates “continuous” by interpreting it as literal day-to-day formal review. Continuous Value Justification means that viability remains subject to ongoing validation; it does not require a complete business-case reassessment every working day. Option A is too late because justification must be maintained while investment decisions can still be changed. Option B imposes an every-Sprint portfolio review requirement that SBOK does not establish universally.

The question's repeated use of “portfolio business justification” is imperfectly aligned with the opening reference to a Product Owner. Strictly, project-level business justification is owned primarily by the Product Owner, while portfolio-level justification belongs to the Portfolio Product Owner. Nevertheless, the substantive business-justification trigger described in D is correct.

Study Guide reference: Business Justification - > Continuous Value Justification; Project Viability; Major Issues and Risks.

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Value-based Prioritization means that Scrum continually orders work so the most valuable requirements receive appropriate priority and business value can be delivered early and continuously, rather than being deferred until final project completion. SCRUMstudy describes this as a core Scrum principle focused on delivering maximum business value from early in the project and throughout its lifecycle.

Option A defines Time-boxing, where time functions as a limiting constraint. Option B defines Self-organization, which empowers the people performing the work. Option C defines Collaboration, specifically using the SBOK dimensions of awareness, articulation, and appropriation.

Value-based prioritization is implemented most visibly through the Prioritized Product Backlog. The Product Owner evaluates requirements by factors including value, risk/uncertainty, and dependencies and continually maintains the ordering as business conditions evolve.

The effect is that the Scrum Team works on high-value functionality without requiring the entire project's requirements to be delivered before stakeholders realize benefits.

Therefore, option D precisely states the SBOK definition.

Study Guide reference: Principles - > Value-based Prioritization; Business Justification - > Value-driven Delivery.

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An Epic represents a high-level requirement that is generally too large or insufficiently detailed to be completed as a single User Story within one Sprint. As an Epic rises in priority and approaches implementation, it is progressively elaborated and decomposed into smaller User Stories.

SCRUMstudy explicitly states that some Epics/User Stories are initially too large to handle within one Sprint and are therefore broken into smaller User Stories when they move high enough in the Prioritized Product Backlog to be considered for upcoming Sprint work.

Smaller User Stories improve estimation, clarification, testability, and the team's ability to create potentially shippable increments within the Sprint time-box. They also enable the Product Owner to prioritize individual pieces of functionality according to value rather than treating a large requirement as one indivisible block.

Option A may be an indirect benefit but is not the fundamental reason. Team size does not determine whether an Epic must be decomposed, and review duration is not the defining criterion.

Therefore, the correct answer is that Epics are too large to be completed within a single Sprint.

Study Guide reference: Plan and Estimate - > Create User Stories - > Decomposition of Epics.

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